More of the 'Big Brother is watching you' ubiquitous attitude that we already have daily.

Is it really going to produce cleverer kids? Or are the kids simply being trained to only work via computers? Of course, I'm sure the basic idea is well-meant, but what sort of future generation are we encouraging here?

As a teacher, I do wonder if all these kids, sitting at their computers to learn, are the sort of human beings we really want, or is the world going to be a place where only this sort of education will function in the workplace?

I let my business class do presentations on screen-casting. It gets them a speaking grade for the end of term. The reason I do this is a) so they can get it out of the way whenever they have time - the deadline is fairly long and b) they tend to take more trouble over it than if it were just an ordinary presentation, in front of the class.

A 2-Minute Technology Tip on Screencasting by Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher). A screencast is when you record the screen. While there are many great options out there, Office Mix is so simple, I’m using it for most screencasting. In this example, students have written a few lines of code in Scratch. Then, they open Office Mix. They use the screen recording tool to capture their program in action. Finally, they make the video and upload it to PowerSchool Learning. This tutorial video shows everything except the uploading process.

I usually use SNAG IT, for which I made a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, but it wasn't that expensive. I have also used SCREENCAST O COM but that is - in the free version - only for narrating and not recording from your PC. Obviously, this one needs some trying-out.

Recently, I have been using Google Drawings to create #HyperDrawings. But, I did not think it was possible to embed video into the Google Drawing! Tonight, I accidentally discovered that it is really easy to do!

Here's a great video from Simple English Videos that I'm adding to my Learn English Online website in the How To Learn English category. You can find the resources mentioned in the video, including free Readers and Audiobooks, here

There are some good ideas here for learners to help themselves. Vicki Hollett tends to talk to viewers as if they were not more than first-graders, but the tips are good. Some ideas may be new, some not so new. Try them if you want to help yourself improve.

A nice recording with a lot of interesting vocabulary, talking about how owning your own yacht demonstrates your wealth as nothing else can. Labelled 'intermediate' the recording is possibly a little slow but the vocabulary is probably worth it. Recommended for adults /business students.

Are you feeling like a day out with a friend? Great! Let me teach you how to arrange a meeting so you can have a chance to practise your English together! In this lesson, I will teach you some of the vocabulary you need to make plans. We will cover all the essential details, such as when, meaning the time of the meeting, and where, meaning the location. After watching, make sure to do the quiz to check your understanding of the lesson. Have a fun day out!

Alison Rostetter's insight:

She's probably even older than I am! So that means she knows what she's talking about.

Switzerland is a good test case for how the world might benefit from more multilingualism, argues language expert Gabrielle Hogan-Brun.

Alison Rostetter's insight:

As a Swiss resident this information appealed to me. Mother tongue English but also speaking Swiss dialect and reading and understanding 'High' German plus a smattering of French and the ability to order a pizza in Italian. Here I get to use languages, in the UK I probably wouldn't.

The ‘cloud’ is the term meaning a collection of online data which is stored online. Creating a classroom cloud is extremely useful because it allows for all the children’s work to be stored in one place and shared easily. Here are 3 tech tools which make creating a cloud nice and straightforward: Google Drive. This…

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